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Spontaneous optical emission of a randomly oriented chiral quantum source
Mikael P. Backlund·July 21, 2026
Quantum Physicsphysics.chem-phphysics.optics
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Abstract
We derive the form of the one-photon state of the electromagnetic field resulting from spontaneous optical emission of a randomly oriented chiral quantum source, including electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole contributions to the radiation. We describe how spatial coherence in the emission can be exploited to reveal hidden information about the emitter. This work serves as a prelude and companion piece to our concurrently submitted work \cite{Backlund2026Letter} in which we present the classical and quantum error bounds associated with assigning the handedness of such an emitter.